EARLVILLE – The Earlville Opera House (EOH) announced Wednesday the receipt of a $20,000 grant from the Central New York Community Foundation (CNYCF), which will allow the opera house to move forward will the installation of its first heating system.

Since the building’s construction in 1892, EOH Executive Director Michelle Connelly said the opera house has been without a heating system, forcing its operations to shut down in October and resume in May.

Connelly said with the grant from CNYCF, along with a $15,000 grant from the Community Foundation of South Central New York, $10,000 from NBT Bank, and about $9,000 in individual contributions, the opera house has a little over $50,000 in funding to have a heating system installed, thus allowing the opera house to continue its operations year-round.

“This will allow the opera house to have year-round programming and theater, which is going to be incredible for us,” said Connelly. “It will provide more opportunities for the performing arts for our area constituents, and it’s also going to allow us to work to our full financial capabilities as an organization.”

The heating project is once again picking up steam after the opera house encountered an unforeseen setback at the turn of the year, when the building’s pipes froze, bursted, and flooded the building.